University of Michigan vodcasts promote global work

Video series highlights medical school’s student and faculty work abroad

One of the more striking memories from John Childress’s trip to Los Pinos was that of a woman living among the small Costa Rican community’s tin roof shacks, suffering from a severe pulmonary disease. In front of her house: an area designated for trash-burning. “She wasn’t capable of actually connecting the two,” the young medical student recalls on camera.

Childress’s interview appears as a snippet in a four-minute micro-documentary, an Internet “vodcast,” detailing the experiences of four University of Michigan medical students who traveled to the village to teach families basic skills related to health, hygiene and self-esteem. Featured on the medical school’s Web site as well as a University Health System’s YouTube channel, the short production conveys the students’ stories not just through words but pictures: shots of the countryside, the ramshackle homes and the children they are there to assist.